True, every player is always one play away from injury but their is something to be said about calculated risk management, if any player gets hurt in the playoffs, it happens and you go with it and no team in the NFL makes an excuse for those things but if you decide to play arguably your MVP in a completely meaningless game and they get injured, how do you answer the question as to why you did it? I'm sure the owner and coach would say something like "we don't play scared or we don't deal in hypotheticals" but you KNOW they understand they blew it at that point. If they make a decision that has no upside but potential bad downside, why do it?
You know there are players that would question that. You know there are teams that have openly said we aren't risking kuechly in a meaningless game. We aren't risking aj green when it's meaningless. This teams know that their long term organizational health (pardon the phrase) is linked to certain players and it's not worth it when there is nothing to play for.
Can you imagine if elliot tears an ACL in this meaningless game tonight? That not only kills everything they have worked on this year but pretty much next year too. To me, I just would like to know that if we see him play normal snaps tonight, what is the payoff versus the potential loss. And if he plays 20 snaps the next two weeks and then seems to wear down I. The playoffs or not be good next year (the 400+ carry thing), then how do they justify it?